Leadership as Practice: Theory and Application. By Joseph A. Raelin (Ed.)

LEADERSHIP AS PRACTICE: THEORY AND APPLICATION. By Joseph A. Raelin (Ed.). New York, NY: Routledge (2016). Paperback, 310 pages. ... practice leadership, as described in this text, relies heavily upon integrated communication, such as is reflected in shared, distributed, and relational leadership. Such interaction, dialogue, collaboration and shared learning reflect what the text refers to as holarchy, which is an ethically grounded relationship between unity and diversity. In such a context, the whole and the parts are equally valued

A Family Enrichment Workshop to Enhance Communication Skills Among African-American Families at the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Problem Research has established that healthy communication skills contribute to marital and family satisfaction among African-Americans. African-American families, in particular, are in need of communication skills and enhancement resources that address their specific ethnic and cultural dynamics. The Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church is a predominately African-American church located in the Belfair community of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Currently the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not provide any researched family enrichment resources that address the specific dynamics of African-American Seventh-day Adventist families, which makes it necessary for research, resources, and programs to be developed that assist Seventh-day Adventist African-American families with healthy communication skills to produce greater family satisfaction. Method The African-American families of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church were selected for investigation of improvement of healthy communication skills. Research was conducted and a family communication enrichment seminar was tested as a means of providing the African-American families of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church with resources to improve family communication skills. The program was comprised of the following: 1. A review of the extant literature was conducted to identify the relevant components to be addressed in the program. 2. A six-week pre-seminar sermon series was presented that taught the biblical principles of healthy family communication. 3. A survey evaluating the effectiveness of the six-week pre-seminar sermon series was administered. 4. A baseline family communication assessment inventory was administered to establish a benchmark of participants’ current use of positive communication skills. 5. A one-day, three-part family communication seminar designed to teach healthy family communication techniques was presented. 6. A survey evaluating the effectiveness of the family communication enrichment seminar was administered. 7. An exit family communication assessment inventory was administered to collect data for comparison to the baseline. 8. The data was evaluated, conclusions were made, and recommendations were suggested. Results Survey results indicated that participants benefited from the six-week sermon series and also viewed the seminar as beneficial to their understanding of positive family communication. Analysis of the pre- and post-family communication seminar intervention indicated a slight increase of respondents reporting positive family communication between pre and post-seminar assessment inventories. Of the 39 results 20 showed an increase, with seven being statistically significant. Of the 39 results 19 showed a decrease, with six being statistically significant. Statistically significant improvements were made in the areas assessing communication frequency, communication avoidance, and the quality of family of communication. Conclusions Five recommendations emerged as a result of this project: a) Replicate research using a larger sample size (100 or more samples) and multiple interventions; b) In the future, allow a longer period of time between assessments to allow participants a greater opportunity to internalize the information presented during pre-sermon series and seminar; c) In the future, have trained surveyors administer inventories; d) In the future, design an inventory to assess family communication that is culturally sensitive to African-American families; e) In the future, include in each component of the program all family members (i.e., children, other adults) of the household, and have them complete pre and post-intervention assessments

A Strategy for Collaborative Leadership at Mt. Sinai Seventh-day Adventist Church in Orlando, Florida

Problem Organized as a Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1899, Mt. Sinai was the first Adventist Church for people of color in Orlando. Although Mt. Sinai gave birth to several other churches in the Central Florida area, Mt. Sinai lost its ability to build a successive and collaborative leadership, giving way to conflict and dysfunction. Clashes arose between African American and Caribbean cultures related to leadership, worship, and doctrinal interpretations. Methodology The church was asked to help identify areas of concern related to types of conflict, conflict management, and conflict resolution as identified by the project proposal. The church was asked to offer input on what outcomes they would expect to see followed by the formation of focus groups which was the method of study for this project. The focus groups were formed through a collaborative effort with the pastor and local church leaders. Six focus groups of diverse persons were selected. Nine to twelve persons were proposed to comprise the focus groups. All persons within the groups were eighteen or more years of age. Each person was a member of the Mt. Sinai Seventh-day Adventist Church who attended not less than two Sabbaths per month. They had an acceptable history of involvement in some phase of the church’s ministry and mission. Group participants were asked to have a history with Mt. Sinai of at least one full year. Factors such as age, gender, marital status, positions served, education, longevity in membership, prior membership from another Adventist church, culture and ethnicity, leadership experience, and spiritual inclinations such as conservative, progressive, or liberal were used to help create diversity in the focus group composition. The focus groups were asked to assess predetermined subjects related to the identified needs and issues of Mt. Sinai. When specific areas or concerns were identified, selected presenters and discussion facilitators were asked to share knowledge, methods and learning on how to recognize, classify, form resolution strategies and approach the implementation of such strategies for resolution and growth. These instructional presentations were made at least twice monthly for six to eight months. The focus groups met at least twice monthly. The remaining four to six months were to demonstrate and test learning associated with the instruction and facilitation presented to the focus groups. At the end of the focus period, assessments were made of what issues were identified, what instruction and learning, what methods and techniques were used to implement learning and how that learning would be achieved and measured. The focus groups proposed recommendations to the church for how it could successfully make adaptations and changes that would create leadership strategies desired by the congregation. The project was limited to Mt. Sinai Seventh-day Adventist Church and as such, is intended only to demonstrate what may or may not result from the work done in this project. Results A new organizational structure designed to correlate compatible ministries into relevant leadership teams was implemented. An administrative elder was added to help coordinate the collective ministries. More engagement of leaders in planning and implementation produced collaboration and empowerment thus broadening participation and ownership. Leaders were not only given more opportunity to lead, but were also given opportunity to risk failure and thus to gain practical experience. Conclusion The project demonstrated that collaborative engagement by a broader base of informed leaders created empowerment and lessened conflict. It was further demonstrated that a wider implementation of these strategies would assure leadership growth and provide better potential for more productive successive leadership

Towards Verifying Nonlinear Integer Arithmetic

We eliminate a key roadblock to efficient verification of nonlinear integer arithmetic using CDCL SAT solvers, by showing how to construct short resolution proofs for many properties of the most widely used multiplier circuits. Such short proofs were conjectured not to exist. More precisely, we give n^{O(1)} size regular resolution proofs for arbitrary degree 2 identities on array, diagonal, and Booth multipliers and quasipolynomial- n^{O(\log n)} size proofs for these identities on Wallace tree multipliers.Comment: Expanded and simplified with improved result

Mapping a Course to Success: The Relationship of a College to Career Navigation Exploratory Course to Academic Success

The purpose of this quantitative, comparative study was to determine the relationship between retention and academic success of students who participated in a College to Career Navigation exploration course and students who did not participate in the course at a rural, community college serving a 14-county area in the Southeast U. S. Archival data were collected from the participating community college’s student information system. Other data examined for this study included the student’s gender, at-risk status, and age. Retention data of the first-year, full-time students were collected and measured in accordance with the enrollment requirements of the community college’s governing board. Data for academic success were collected and measured by student’s cumulative final GPA. Chi-square tests of independence and independent sample t tests were used to analyze the relationship of the College to Career Navigation exploration course with outcomes that measured student success. Overall findings from the chi-square tests indicated, that participants of the College to Career Navigation exploration course had significantly higher retention rates than those students who did not participate in the College to Career Navigation exploration course. The independent sample t tests indicated students who participated in the College to Career Navigation exploration course at significantly higher cumulative GPAs than those who did not participate in the course

Investigation of nanodispersion in polystyrene-montmorillonite nanocomposites by solid state NMR

Nanocomposites result from combinations of materials with vastly different properties in the nanometer scale. These materials exhibit many unique properties such as improved thermal stability, reduced flammability, and improved mechanical properties. Many of the properties associated with polymer–clay nanocomposites are a function of the extent of exfoliation of the individual clay sheets or the quality of the nanodispersion. This work demonstrates that solid-state NMR can be used to characterize, quantitatively, the nanodispersion of variously modified montmorillonite (MMT) clays in polystyrene (PS) matrices. The direct influence of the paramagnetic Fe3, embedded in the aluminosilicate layers of MMT, on polymer protons within about 1 nm from the clay surfaces creates relaxation sources, which, via spin diffusion, significantly shorten the overall proton longitudinal relaxation time (T1 H). Deoxygenated samples were used to avoid the particularly strong contribution to the T1 H of PS from paramagnetic molecular oxygen. We used T1 H as an indicator of the nanodispersion of the clay in PS. This approach correlated reasonably well with X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) data. A model for interpreting the saturation-recovery data is proposed such that two parameters relating to the dispersion can be extracted. The first parameter, f, is the fraction of the potentially available clay surface that has been transformed into polymer–clay interfaces. The second parameter is a relative measure of the homogeneity of the dispersion of these actual polymer–clay interfaces. Finally, a quick assay of T1 H is reported for samples equilibrated with atmospheric oxygen. Included are these samples as well as 28 PS/MMT nanocomposite samples prepared by extrusion. These measurements are related to the development of highthroughput characterization techniques. This approach gives qualitative indications about dispersion; however, the more time-consuming analysis, of a few deoxygenated samples from this latter set, offers significantly greater insight into the clay dispersion. A second, probably superior, rapid-analysis method, applicable to oxygen-containing samples, is also demonstrated that should yield a reasonable estimate of the f parameter. Thus, for PS/MMT nanocomposites, one has the choice of a less complete NMR assay of dispersion that is significantly faster than TEM analysis, versus a slower and more complete NMR analysis with sample times comparable to TEM, information rivaling that of TEM, and a substantial advantage that this is a bulk characterization method. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.* J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 3188–3213, 200

Studying the role of axon fasciculation during development in a computational model of the Xenopus tadpole spinal cord

Abstract During nervous system development growing axons can interact with each other, for example by adhering together in order to produce bundles (fasciculation). How does such axon-axon interaction affect the resulting axonal trajectories, and what are the possible benefits of this process in terms of network function? In this paper we study these questions by adapting an existing computational model of the development of neurons in the Xenopus tadpole spinal cord to include interactions between axons. We demonstrate that even relatively weak attraction causes bundles to appear, while if axons weakly repulse each other their trajectories diverge such that they fill the available space. We show how fasciculation can help to ensure axons grow in the correct location for proper network formation when normal growth barriers contain gaps, and use a functional spiking model to show that fasciculation allows the network to generate reliable swimming behaviour even when overall synapse counts are artificially lowered. Although we study fasciculation in one particular organism, our approach to modelling axon growth is general and can be widely applied to study other nervous systems

Intelligent street lighting application for electric power distribution systems the business case for smartgrid technology

Master of ScienceDepartment of Electrical and Computer EngineeringAnil PahwaThis research project builds upon previous work related to intelligent and energy efficient lighting in modern street and outdoor lighting systems. The concept of implementing modern smart grid technologies such as the proposed Street & Outdoor Lighting Intelligent Monitoring System (SOLIMS) is developed. A random sample of photocells from two municipal electric power systems is used to collect data of the actual on/off times of random photocells versus Civil Twilight (sunrise/sunset) times. A business case was developed using the data collected from the observations to support an electric utility company’s implementation of SOLIMS as an alternative to current operations. The goal of the business case is to demonstrate energy and capacity savings, reduced maintenance and operating costs, and lower carbon emissions

Wind-Tunnel Results of the B-52B with the X-43A Stack

A low-speed wind-tunnel test was performed with a 3%-scale model of a booster rocket mated to an X-43A research vehicle, a combination referred to as the Hyper-X launch vehicle. The test was conducted both in freestream air and in the presence of a partial model of the B-52B airplane. The objectives of the test were to obtain force and moment data to generate structural loads affecting the pylon of the B-52B airplane and to determine the aerodynamic influence of the B-52B on the Hyper-X launch vehicle for evaluating launch separation characteristics. The windtunnel test was conducted at a low-speed wind tunnel in Hampton, Virginia. All moments and forces reported are based either on the aerodynamic influence of the B-52B airplane or are for the Hyper-X launch vehicle in freestream air. Overall, the test showed that the B-52B airplane imparts a strong downwash onto the Hyper-X launch vehicle, reducing the net lift of the Hyper-X launch vehicle. Pitching and rolling moments are also imparted onto the booster and are a strong function of the launch-drop angle of attack

Evaluation of Phage Display Discovered Peptides as Ligands for Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA)

The aim of this study was to identify potential ligands of PSMA suitable for further development as novel PSMA-targeted peptides using phage display technology. The human PSMA protein was immobilized as a target followed by incubation with a 15-mer phage display random peptide library. After one round of prescreening and two rounds of screening, high-stringency screening at the third round of panning was performed to identify the highest affinity binders. Phages which had a specific binding activity to PSMA in human prostate cancer cells were isolated and the DNA corresponding to the 15-mers were sequenced to provide three consensus sequences: GDHSPFT, SHFSVGS and EVPRLSLLAVFL as well as other sequences that did not display consensus. Two of the peptide sequences deduced from DNA sequencing of binding phages, SHSFSVGSGDHSPFT and GRFLTGGTGRLLRIS were labeled with 5-carboxyfluorescein and shown to bind and co-internalize with PSMA on human prostate cancer cells by fluorescence microscopy. The high stringency requirements yielded peptides with affinities KD∼1 μM or greater which are suitable starting points for affinity maturation. While these values were less than anticipated, the high stringency did yield peptide sequences that apparently bound to different surfaces on PSMA. These peptide sequences could be the basis for further development of peptides for prostate cancer tumor imaging and therapy. © 2013 Shen et al